The scarcity of helium is a really serious issue. I can imagine that in 50 years time our children will be saying, I cant believe they used such a precious material to fill balloons, said the doctor, Peter Wothers.

The non-renewable gas is a necessity in hospitals, where it is used to cool magnets in MRI scanners and mixed with oxygen to allow ill patients and newborn babies to breathe more easily.

Scientists have been unsuccessful in finding a sustainable way of making the gas artificially.

If we keep using it for non-essential things like party balloons, where were just letting it float off into space, we could be in for some serious problems in around 30 to 50 years time. The gas is hugely valuable.

I would think that Aire Liquide would have a ceramic that would seperate it out. Probably can’t get the volume needed though.

There are only eight wells in the US that produce Helium and I cannot figure out why Congress decided to open up sales. It just does not make a whole lot of sense because it is definitely a national security material.

Let the free market decide. If demand for helium is so strong, the price will go up accordingly. And while someone with a medical need will pay whatever’s charged, no one — except maybe a limousine liberal — will pay $95 for a party balloon.

This guy doesnt understand economics. The more uses for something the cheaper and more available it gets. Aluminum was one of the most expensive and rare elements on the planet until the government decided it wanted lightning rods on public buildings to be made from aluminum. (This was, at the time, like ordering lightning rods made from gold.) This created a market and chemists immediately invented processes to produce material to fill that market. Unlike gold, aluminum is the most common metal in the Earths crust. Market/use = cheap/abundance.

This mans thinking is typically liberal. If you use something you use it up; therefore it must be regulated by the government. In reality, the more you use something the more there is of it. Take oil. In 1960 alarmists said wed be completely out of oil by 1970. In 1970 there were more reserves known than in 1960. So, they moved the date to 1980, then 1990, then 2000. Each decade saw more known reserves. Now, we know that oil is produced by biological processes near the earths core, not fossil bones (see link below.) Even if that werent the case, a market for oil would mean somebody would invent a process to come up with oil. (The Nazis did; coal to oil.)

I have a family member that runs MRI equipment for a small, struggling hospital in a rural area. When they fall behind on their lease payments on the MRI equipment, the company refuses to refill the helium until they pay up.

22
posted on 12/13/2012 6:40:18 AM PST
by DocRock
(All they that TAKE the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52 Gun grabbers beware.)

By all means lets use it up so hospitals can no longer use MRI machines. A kids party balloon is a much more important use for it. And happiness is impossible without have a helium filled party balloon. sarc/

I went to buy balloons for a birthday party and was told they (Safeway) no longer have them, because the US government controls all helium and is restricting supplies.
The clerk said it is just to complicated to buy the gas, so they stopped (at that store at least).

26
posted on 12/13/2012 6:56:17 AM PST
by svcw
(Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)

You have no idea of the power of the Party Balloon. Without it, children will be miserable. With unhappy children, why bother with MRI machines? Why would anyone want to live in a joyless, depressing world with no Party Balloons?

Should we toil at drudgery, day in and day out, only to have machines artificially keep us alive so that we can scrabble another root or tuber from a barren, lifeless landscape? What is the point of life without laughter, or happiness, or contentment?

Can you possibly be so jaded that you don't consider the QUALITY of life, more than just the number of days of a bleak, forbidding, horrific and joyless existence? Is it better to live more swiftly in an Eden, then it is to live a few more months in a gray, bleak, hopeless Gulag?

29
posted on 12/13/2012 7:07:08 AM PST
by Lazamataz
(LAZ'S LAW: As an argument with liberals goes on, the probability of being called racist approaches 1)

There are loads of wells that produce small amounts of helium. Mostly in New Mexico. The problem is the economics of separating and capturing it. This process is spreading, e.g., to Kansas and Oklahoma, as the price increases.

That is not an inconsequential problem. Using cryogenics to separate out helium require cooling down to below -346°F where the nitrogen condenses out of the gas remaining after the methane condensed out at -260°F

You can see that Helium is also a waste product from upgassing as well. If the price dictates, that helium will be captured from those processes and sold...so it isn’t just certain wells that contain it, but also the byproduct from upgassing.

The amount of helium found in various natural gas deposits varies from almost zero to as high as 4% by volume. Only about one-tenth of the working natural gas fields have economically viable concentrations of helium greater than 0.4%.

Helium can also be produced by liquefying air and separating the component gases. The production costs for this method are high, and the amount of helium contained in air is very low. Although this method is often used to produce other gases, like nitrogen and oxygen, it is rarely used to produce helium.

...

When the gas contains more than about 0.4% helium by volume, a cryogenic distillation method is often used in order to recover the helium content.

That requires extreme cryogenic temperatures. Very few wells have economic recoverable amounts.

Thanks. I can never remember whether there is or is not "a rat" in "separate".

At the risk of getting completely off topic, that is one of those words I stumble over. I once wrote a book report on 'A Separate Peace' in which I misspelled 'separate' everytime. I now remember it by likening it to the word 'pare', where they both can mean to cut apart. I have no idea if they share a similar etymology, but it works for me.

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and Iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

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